Monthly Archives: August 2022

TVR Tuscan Challenge

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1999 TVR Tuscan Challenge

Offered by Silverstone Auctions | Silverstone, U.K. | August 26-27, 2022

Photo – Silverstone Auctions

The first TVR Tuscan was a car built in the 1960s. It was essentially a V8- (or V6)-powered version of the Grantura. The name was reused on the somehow more-wild Tuscan Speed Six of 1999-2006. In the intervening years, a Tuscan Challenge one-marque racing series took place.

Beginning in 1989, the Tuscan Challenge spec race car ran in a single-make series put on by TVR. The last season was around 2006. The cars resembled the early-1990s Griffith and Chimaera but actually debuted before either car. It’s somewhat unclear how many race cars were built in 1989 and later updated and modified, or how many they continued to build new over the next decade. This one was built new by TVR in 1999.

It’s powered by a either a 4.4-liter or 4.5-liter V8. Race wins for this chassis totaled four in the 1999 season and three the following year in which it took second in the championship. It now has an estimate of $79,000-$91,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Not sold.

Pope-Hartford Race Car

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1910 Pope-Hartford Model W 50HP Racer

Offered by Bonhams | Carmel, California | August 19, 2022

Photo – Bonhams

Pope-Hartford was the longest-lasting of all of the marques of Colonel Albert Augustus Pope. The first cars were sold in 1904, and the brand continued on through 1914. In 1910, they offered a Model T, with the Models W and Y following for 1911.

Power in the Model W is from a 6.4-liter inline-four that made about 50 horsepower. The car is thought to have received its racing-style body prior to WWII. It was purchased by early sporting car collector Lindley Bothwell in the 1950s and raced in that decade at the Santa Catalina Island and Pebble Beach Sports Car Races.

Bothwell died in 1986, and his collection was not dispersed until 2017. Prior to that, this car was used in the movie Seabiscuit, presumably where the horse’s owner fills his horse barn with pre-war racing cars and then later removes them again in favor of horses. It’s a quick scene, but there is some real eye candy in it. The pre-sale estimate here is $400,000-$500,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $445,000.

Ferrari 625 F1

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1954 Ferrari 625 F1

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Monterey, California | August 18-20, 2022

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Formula One didn’t technically come into existence, by that name anyway, until 1950. Prior to that there was just a European Championship, in which Ferrari debuted in 1948. So this car, then, is from the first decade of Ferrari’s open-wheel racing program.

In 1952 and 1953, Formula Two was actually the pinnacle of motorsport, as determined by its governing body, the FIA. So the best drivers all tooled around in F2 cars for a couple of years before Formula One again became the World Championship decider in 1954.

Ferrari’s Aurelio Lampredi-designed F2 car for 1952 and 1953 was the 500. When the Scuderia had to shift back to F1, they took 500 chassis and modified them into 625 F1 spec. And this, chassis 0540, is one of those cars. The engine in the 625 was a 2.5-liter inline-four equipped with dual Weber carburetors for an output of up to 227 horsepower.

This car started out as the fourth of five 500 F2 cars before being retrofitted and re-serialed by the factory as a 625 F1. It was campaigned at both levels by Ecurie Francorchamps, a Belgian F1 team. It was later owned by Donald Healey and Pierre Bardinon.

This real-deal Ferrari monoposto from the golden age of F1 racing now has an estimate of $3,000,000-$4,000,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Not sold.

Coachbuilt Corvair

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1960 Chevrolet Corvair Coupe Speciale by Pinin Farina

Offered by Gooding & Company | Pebble Beach, California | August 19-20, 2022

Photo – Gooding & Company

The first Corvairs were sold for the 1960 model year, which is when GM Styling VP Bill Mitchell shipped this example to Italy to have Pinin Farina take a stab at designing around the platform.

That platform featured a rear-engined flat-six that, on this example, displaces 2.4 liters and makes about 80 horsepower. The car was shown at the 1961 Paris and Turin Motor Shows before being revised by Tom Tjaarda. It re-debuted at the 1963 Geneva show in its current 2+2 configuration.

Then Pinin Farina kept it in their private collection until 1996. But the exercise wasn’t for nothing: the second-generation Corvair rolled out in 1965, with some styling cues lifted from this car. It’s now one of the most expensive Corvairs anywhere in the world, with an estimate of $300,000-$500,000, which seems… steep. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $315,000.

Jomar Mk II

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1956 Jomar Mk II

Offered by Bonhams | Carmel, California | August 19, 2022

Photo – Bonhams

Jomar was founded by Raymond Saidel, who inherited a sports car dealership in New Hampshire in 1950. The first Jomar cars, the creatively named Mk I, were based on Dellow chassis from England wrapped in aluminum bodies and powered by tiny Ford engines.

The Jomar Mk II of 1956 used a TVR chassis and a Coventry Climax engine. This example is the third Mk II built and features a 1.1-liter Coventry Climax engine rated at about 85 horsepower. The body is in aluminum, and it’s been restored and updated with a few modern safety features for historic racing.

This car actually competed throughout the U.S. in 1957 and 1958 and has more recently seen time on track during events such as the Monterey Motorsports Reunion at Laguna Seca. The pre-sale estimate is $80,000-$120,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Not sold.

Zink Z-8

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1969 Zink-Volkswagen Z-8 Daytona Prototype

Offered by Gooding & Company | Pebble Beach, California | August 19-20, 2022

Photo – Gooding & Company

Ed Zink is most remembered for his Formula Vee open-wheel race cars, but in the 1960s, it was hard not to get caught up in prototype sports car racing, apparently. The Z-8 featured a space-frame chassis wrapped in fiberglass bodywork.

For power, project cheerleader and idea man Hugh Heishman (a Virginia Volkswagen dealer) turned to VW for their new Type 3E fuel-injected flat-four. The 1.9-liter unit is carbureted now and is estimated to make about 150 horsepower. The car was run in period, including:

  • 1969 24 Hours of Daytona – 18th, 3rd in class (with Bill Scott, Jim McDaniel, and Steve Pieper)
  • 1969 12 Hours of Sebring – 68th, DNF (with Scott, McDaniel, and Pieper)

It went SCCA racing in privateer hands after that, eventually being stored in a disassembled state. A restoration that completed in 2017 brought it to its current condition. Gooding estimates a price of $150,000-$200,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $75,000.

Curved Dash Olds

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1903 Oldsmobile Model R Runabout

Offered by Bonhams | Carmel, California | August 19, 2022

Photo – Bonhams

This is the car that revolutionized automobiles. Ransom E. Olds built his first Curved Dash prototypes in 1900, and customer deliveries started late the following year. For 1902 and 1903, the cars were officially dubbed the Model R, but many similar Oldsmobiles built through 1907 are widely collectively known as “Curved Dash Oldsmobiles” (CDO).

1903 was the company’s best up to that point, with 3,924 cars produced. The CDO was built on an assembly line using interchangeable parts instead of everything being a one-off crafted by hand. This put Oldsmobile in the #1 sales position in America, with Cadillac a distant second, nearly 1,500 units behind.

Power is from a single-cylinder engine displacing 1.6 liters and producing seven horsepower. The cars have a strong following and are used often by enthusiastic owners. The pre-sale estimate is $65,000-$80,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $30,240

Ferrari F300

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1998 Ferrari F300

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Monterey, California | August 18-20, 2022

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

This was Ferrari’s 1998 F1 contender. It was very similar to 1997’s F310B, which itself was an evolution of 1996’s F310. The main differences between 1998 and 1997 were a narrower track and redesigned sidepods.

Ferrari supplied their own 3.0-liter V10, which made about 805 horsepower in this application. The season’s drivers were Michael Schumacher and Eddie Irvine, and the competition history for this particular chassis, 187, includes:

  • 1998 Canadian Grand Prix – 1st (with Michael Schumacher)
  • 1998 French Grand Prix – 1st (with Schumacher)
  • 1998 British Grand Prix – 1st (with Schumacher)
  • 1998 Italian Grand Prix – 1st (with Schumacher)

Not bad. Unfortunately, Mika Hakkinen’s McLaren was still too strong, and Schumacher ended up second in the World Championship. Ferrari also took second place in the constructors race. Ferrari sold this car late the following year to a private owner.

Race-winning cars from former world champions are hard to come by, especially with their engines intact. The price reflects it here: the estimate is $6,000,000-$8,000,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $6,220,000.

Delage D8-120 Grand Luxe

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1939 Delage D8-120 Cabriolet Grand Luxe by Chapron

Offered by Gooding & Company | Pebble Beach, California | August 19-20, 2022

Photo – Gooding & Company

The D8-120 was the ultimate version of Delage’s grand eight-cylinder car. Introduced in 1937, the model was available through 1940, which marked the end of eight-cylinder Delages. Those eight cylinders displaced 4.3 liters, a slight increase over the earlier D8-100. Output was rated at 90 horsepower. Or 120. Depends who you ask.

This car features bodywork by Henri Chapron that is set off by swoopy lines and a bumper-less front end. Between the louvered hood, superbly placed bits of chrome, and kind of intense wheel covers, this car just has that look. The car wasn’t actually bodied until 1946, with the chassis having been intended for the canceled 1939 Paris Motor Show.

It spent time in Egypt before coming to the U.S. The car was restored in 1995 and repainted in these colors, the originals, in 1998. It now has an estimate of $800,000-$1,200,000, which seems like a steal from the sheer look of it. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $940,000.

Haynes Model 27

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1914 Haynes Model 27 Touring

Offered by Gooding & Company | Pebble Beach, California | August 19-20, 2022

Photo – Gooding & Company

Elwood Haynes was a pioneer in the American automotive industry, having built one of the earliest cars in the country and having designed the first American car that could be mass produced. In 1904, he parted ways with the Apperson brothers and set out on his own.

The Haynes Automobile Company last until 1925, and in 1914, the company’s range consisted of three models. The Model 27 was the largest, powered by a 50-horsepower, 7.7-liter inline-six. Three body styles were offered, including this seven-passenger tourer, which is believed to be one of two Model 27 tourers to survive.

This example remained in the family of the original owner until the 1980s and remained in Iowa until 2007. It later won a preservation class award at Pebble Beach and is now being sold at no reserve with an estimate of $100,000-$130,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $112,000.